A Compact Fiber Inclinometer Using a Thin-Core Fiber with Incorporated an Air-Gap Microcavity Fiber Interferometer

A compact fiber-optic inclinometer is proposed and experimentally demonstrated based on a Fabry-Perot interference (FFPI). The sensing head consists of a short segment of thin-core fiber (TCF) following with a piece of hollow-core fiber (HCF). High-order cladding modes have been excited because of core diameter mismatch. A clear interference spectrum has been obtained as the consequence of interference among the reflected core modes and cladding modes. Fringe contrast of the interference spectrum is highly sensitive to fiber bending with direction independence, and good linearity has been observed during the bending range from 1° to 3° with a sensitivity of 2.71 dB/deg.